Thursday, April 26, 2012

Human rights as a career

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, irrespective of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimi-nation. These rights are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the form of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Human Rights legislation commonly contains:

Security rights that protect people against crimes such as murder, massacre, torture and rape

Liberty rights that protect freedoms in area such as belief and religion, association, assemblies and movement

Political rights that protect the liberty to participate in politics by expressing themselves, protesting, voting and serving in public office

Due process rights that protect against abuse of the legal system such as imprisonment without trial, secret trials and excessive punishment

Equality rights that guarantee equal citizenship, equality before law and non discrimination

Welfare rights (also known as economic and social rights) that require the provision of education and protection against severe poverty and starvation

Group rights that provide protection for group against ethnic genocide and for the ownership by countries of their national territories and resources

Violation of Human Rights

According to the Universal Declaration of Human rights, fundamental rights are violated when:

A Certain, Creed, or a group is denied recognition as a “person” (Article 2)

Men and Women are not treated as equal (Article 2)

Different Racial or Religious groups are not treated equally (Article 2)

Life, liberty or security of person are threatened (Article 3)

A person is sold as or used as a slave (Article 4)

Cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment is used on a person (such as torture or execution) (Article 5)

Punishments are dealt arbitrarily or unilaterally, without a proper and fair trial (Article 11)

Arbitrary interference into personal, or private lives by agents of the state (Article 12)